Remember, Draco
by Fantony
Summary: At the end of the war, the Ministry decides to cast a false memory charm on Draco Malfoy and send him to the Muggle world with no memories of the wizarding world, but Harry doesn't see it that way. Slash HPDM.


_**Plot:**__ At the end of the war, the Ministry decides to cast a false memory charm on Draco Malfoy and send him to the Muggle world with no memories of the wizarding world, but Harry doesn't see it that way. Slash. HPDM. _

_**Please keep in mind that I'm French, hence the English mistakes! :)**_

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><p><strong>REMEMBER, DRACO... <strong>

"Memory... is the diary that we all carry about with us." ~Oscar Wilde, _The Importance of Being Earnest_

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><p><strong>CHAPTER 1.<strong>

_**Hogwarts, Headmistress' office, seven months after the end of the war... **_

"This is ridiculous," Snape snorts in his portrait.

"No one asked your opinion," I mumble without looking up from the old book I am leafing through.

I hear him mutter something but I don't pay too much attention. It's already late into the night, I've been leafing through hundreds of books and I can barely keep my eyes open. No one knows I'm here, except Snape. The other Headmasters are sleeping in their portraits and Dumbledore is snoring horribly.

Well, I was at Hogwarts today, as McGonagall had asked me to come around and talk about the war during "History of Magic" lessons. I must admit it felt weird to have first years looking at me as if I was some kind of hero. I never considered myself to be one.

Anyway, I pretended to leave at the end of the afternoon, but I hid out until midnight. Then I made my way to the Headmaster's tower and tried a couple of passwords once in front of the gargoyle. To my great surprise, McGonagall uses one of Dumbledore's old passwords, "Lemon sherbet". I can call myself lucky!

Of course, that would have been simpler to ask McGonagall if I could use her office, but truth is I don't want anyone to know what I am looking for, and above all, what I intend to do. But just like his subject, "Portrait Snape" is a light sleeper and he is very skilled at occlumency.

"You really can't help breaking the rules, Potter. How distressing..."

"Oh shut up Snape, don't you have better things to do than spying on me?"

"I sure have, portrait life is so _utterly_ exciting. I can always attend Dumbledore's tea party with the other Headmasters, or listen to the Fat Lady blabbering all day... Oh wait, it's half past two in the morning, and everybody's sleeping..."

I roll my eyes and suppress a laugh.

"Why do you want to get back in touch with him, anyway? You fought like cat and dog. Then again, you've always made stupid decisions, so I can't say I'm surprised."

I glare at him and sigh.

He's right. Draco Malfoy and I have never been friends. Never, ever. He's always been an arrogant, snide and despicable prat, and I've always hated him. I'd rather have been friends with a troll, and that's saying something.

But things changed during our sixth year at Hogwarts. On that day I saw him break down and cry in that bathroom. I'd never seen him look so fragile, so... human...

It felt good to see that he wasn't as strong as he pretended to be, but it wasn't enough. I remember how powerful I suddenly felt, how badly I wanted to make him sink even lower. I was eaten up by hatred. Blind. A single word escaped my mouth, and there he was, lying in a pool of his own blood and I'd never felt so ashamed in my whole life. I almost killed him that day, and I realised with horror that I was no better than Voldemort when I let dark feelings overwhelm me.

It then dawned on me that Draco wasn't as bad as I'd convinced myself he was. He had only been involved in a war he hadn't been willing to fight, and he was lost, and scared. Of course, I couldn't forget all the animosity between us, but I started to sympathise with him, and to think that maybe, Dumbledore was right to believe there is good in everybody's heart as long as you bother finding it. All Draco needed was someone holding out their hand to him.

That's what I literally did later. In the Room of Requirement on fire. I could have let him die there, but despite all the years of rivalry and hostility, I held out my hand to him, and saved his life. I owned him that.

I'm sure he could have turned out to be a better person. I believed in his redemption. But at the end of the war, Voldemort's followers were sent to Azkaban, except a couple of them, like the Malfoys, who had proved to have changed sides during the war and who were therefore allowed to be given a second chance. Second chance, my arse!

The Ministry cast false memory charms on them, sending them to the muggle world with no memories of the wizarding world, but memories of a life that's never been theirs. Of course, it is strictly forbidden to try and meet them.

I should laugh at the irony that after all the bashing about muggles, Draco now lives as one and doesn't even know that magic exists somewhere, but I don't feel like laughing at all.

False memories... I think it's even worse than being sent to Azkaban. Sure, Azkaban changes a man, but it doesn't make you forget who you are.

Anyway, what Snape doesn't know, what nobody knows, is what happened the day before the Ministry arrested Draco and completely altered his memory.

They don't know he asked to meet me in Hog's Head a few days after the end of the war. They don't know that against all odds, I enjoyed that evening I spent talking to him like I had never done before. They haven't seen him letting down his guard, letting his mask fall, allowing me to finally see his true self. They don't know that as we were about to say goodbye in that dark and deserted Hogsmeade alley, and that he was beating about the bush, trying to find the words to thank me for having saved his life, I told him no words were needed and without thinking, I lifted up his chin and captured his thin pale lips in a long and soft kiss. They haven't seen the single tear rolling down his cheek as we parted away in silence.

And they don't know that my heart broke into a thousand pieces when I learnt what the Ministry had done to him on the following day...

It took me seven months to locate him. Seven odd months and a couple of infractions like stealing top secret files from the Ministry of Magic, allowing me to find out the new name they had given him, Darius Mumford –DM, just like Draco Malfoy-, and some other useful information that helped to find him.

But before I meet him, I need to know how to reverse the charm...

"He's not going to recognize you anyway, so what's the point?" Snape asks, taking me out of my torpor.

"Mind your own business, Snape. You're getting on my nerves!"

"Too bad, I know a book that may have been useful to you..." he says as he walks away from his portrait.

"Wha..? Snape, wait!"

He stops dead in his tracks and slowly turns around, a smirk on his face.

"Something's wrong, Potter?"

"Tell me where this book is, Snape!" I pause. "Please..."

"And why exactly would I help you?"

"Because you loved my mother?" I tease.

"Damn you, you insolent brat!" he yells.

"Come on, Sev', you know you want to help! Look at those eyes, don't they look like hers?"

Yes, that's cruel.

He gives me a look of utter disgust but before I can say anything, I hear him mutter "_Memory charms and their reverse spells._ Huge green book on the highest shelf on the left. Take it and get out of my sight, you dunderhead!"

I summon the book and smile at him.

"You kick ass, Snape!"

"Language, Potter!"

I grin.

"Sorry! You're the best, Professor Snape!"

He sneers and crosses his arms over his chest.

"Obviously."

I give him a curt nod, and walk away.

I don't care Dumbledore said reversing a false memory charm was a very difficult task, and I certainly don't care about Ministry's rules! Whatever it'll take, I'll bring Draco back!

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><p><em><strong>Thanks for reading! Reviews and constructive criticism are more than welcomed! :)<strong>_

**Published on September.10 2011**


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